(Colossal) Pictures Proves
There is Life After Chapter 11

by Karl Cohen

News stories about Disney are often read around
the world, but major news about lesser-known animation companies are generally
ignored by the national press. One important story that was treated this
way began to unfold in public on April 3, 1996, when a San Francisco
Chronicle story headlined, "Colossal Pictures to Lay Off Third
of Staff." This item was followed by rumors that the company, one
of the mainstays of the local animation industry with a staff of about
130, had given pink slips to 40, 80, 100, and even 120 people.

In June, the Chronicle ran a second story noting that they had filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The rumor mill in the local film
community seemed to go out of control, and there was even talk that Colossal
was out of business. The company issued press releases explaining what
had happened, but it appears the writers at several trade magazines didn't
read them. Instead, they continued to run stories that suggested things
at Colossal were bigger and better than ever.

Drew Takahashi.

Colossal Pictures, founded in 1976, became well
known in the 1980s for its innovative design work. They pioneered the "Blendo"
look that featured a mixture of different animation techniques in the same
commercial. Often live-action footage or photo montage was included along
with stop-motion, cel animation, drawn images and other techniques. They
also developed the Liquid Television and Aeon Flux shows
for MTV and are known for their music video productions for The Grateful
Dead, Bobby McFerrin, Primus, The Kronos Quartet, Peter Gabriel, and other
stars. Their feature work includes titles for such films as The Black
Stallion, Peggy Sue Got Married, andBram Stoker's Dracula. They
did special effects for The Right Stuff, Top Gun, Demolition Man
and Running Man. In addition, they provided animated sequences for
Natural Born Killers and Tank Girl.

Today, Colossal has undergone an extensive reorganization.
They consolidated their operations in one building (there had been four).
They now have around 40 people on staff, including a new CEO. And Drew
Takahashi, co-founder and chairman of the board states that, "We can
look forward to being out of Chapter 11 in 1997."

What Happened
The changes that occurred in 1996 were triggered by the rising costs of
doing business and a drop in the company's profits. The animation division
had become so large it was not only unwieldy to run, but it was also less
profitable than it had been in years past. It was decided that it was wiser
to restructure the company and concentrate on the development of well-written
and designed projects, rather than maintain all the facilities and staff
needed to execute animated, live-action, and special effects work. It was
especially difficult to maintain its high-tech computer facilities, which
require constant upgrades of equipment and software. It was decided that,
in the future, they would send the production of their animated and special
effects work out to other companies.

Colossal eventually consolidated their activities
at their facility at 101 15th Street in San Francisco. Prior to doing so,
they had their ink and paint service in one building, the animation department
in another, the administrative office, a design department and other services
in a third, and stages, a model shop, a camera room and other facilities
at a forth location. Drew Takahashi says it was just too much to keep track
of.

Just as important to the survival of Colossal as the downsizing of space
and staff were the changes made in the administration. Gary Gutierrez,
who co-founded the company with Takahashi,left to pursue his desires to
work as a filmmaker on feature productions, though he still remains a stockholder
and believer in Colossal's future. Takahashi has stepped aside as president
and CEO to become chief creative officer and chairman of the board of directors.
In December, Brooks McChesney was appointed president and CEO.

Brooks McChesney.

McChesney, who was trained as a lawyer, has over
20 years management and production experience with hi-tech and interactive
companies. Before coming to Colossal, he was chief operating officer of
IVN Communications Inc., a leading producer and distributor of nonfiction
programming.

McChesney says he is refocusing the business end of Colossal to have a
more aggressive account management strategy. He states that "We're
now more proactive in communicating our menu of services to our client
base, so that an advertising account will use us for their Web site design
and an online company will discover we can help them with their advertising
needs."

"Drew Takahashi is Colossal," according to one staff member.
His greatest strength is conceiving and designing projects. The company's
international reputation for producing remarkable works, noted for their
unique style and techniques, is based to a large extent on his visions.
Unfortunately, in recent years he had little time to devote his energies
to the company's creative side. With the addition of McChesney, Takahashi
can once again concentrate on what he does best, design and direct projects.

Colossal's Latest Work
Proof that the company is alive and well can be seen in their latest demo
reel. It isn't as long as past reels, but it is just as exceptional, with
one outstanding work on it after another.

The company's latest commercials for Coca-Cola demonstrate Takahashi's
brilliance as a creative director. The two spots are so dramatic that many
people are unaware that one was done with CGI and the other all live-action
without any added special effects. Both are journeys through unusual spaces.
For viewers, it isn't how they were done that is important. What is important
is that they are visually captivating and reinforce the sponsor's name.

Pictogram.

Pictogram,
the computer-generated Coke ad, flies around some sort of carnival ride
of the future. We go past fascinating statues, gadgets and other cool things.
There is no hard sell on the soundtrack, instead we see some 40 or 50 Coke
bottles in the landscape, often seen as tiny decorative details. The product's
name is sometimes barely visible on a bottle or sign for a fraction of
a second as we fly on by. The end result is our seeing the company's name
15 or 20 times in 30 seconds. It is a sophisticated, understated spot that
just might win a few major awards.

The live-action Coke spot takes us inside a Rube Goldberg-style vending
machine, starting with a closeup of a finger pushing a button and ending
with an inflated rubber glove deflating, allowing the bottle of Coke resting
on it to tip over and pour its contents into a glass. In-between marbles,
eggs and steel balls roll and bounce about, making levers move within this
unique device. It should also be an award winner.

Other recent work by the company includes a series of 20 IDs for the launch
of Locomotion, a new South American satellite animation channel. Using
a variety of styles, including stop-motion and computer graphics, they
created a wonderful series of images. Most are full of primary colors and
are done with really hot, contemporary-style graphics. Charlie Canfield,
who joined the company in 1991 after working at Industrial Light &
Magic (ILM), directed them.

Another remarkable work, directed by Canfield, is a show opening for the
Nickelodeon channel, that again combines both traditional and digital animation.
It shows a blue rhino galloping across a pink cloudscape at sunrise. He
stumbles on a couple of clouds and they fall over to reveal they are painted
billboards with scaffolding holding them up from behind.

My favorite work on the reel is a stunning work
done for Turner Classic Movies, directed by Tom McClure, which brings the
paintings of Edward Hopper to life. We watch sunlight and shadows move
across his cityscapes as people sit or stand quietly, or slowly move about.
The city seems to be a series of 3-D sets or models, but it still maintains
the look of Hopper paintings. All this is set to a period song about the
sunny side of life. The music and visuals works so well together that they
must make a lot of viewers happy when they see this art that moves.

Colossal's latest work to be released is Koala
Lumpur, a CD-ROM created and directed by Jamie Baker, that provides
an interactive journey in the form of an action-adventure movie with lots
of outrageous humor. A review on Gamesite said that Colossal's collaboration
with Brøderbund produced "mature themes, high-brow remarks,
and twisted puzzles with the finesse of a seasoned Las Vegas lounge comedian.
And their routine deserves a loud round of applause . . . a unique fun
experience . . .they pull the trick off so well that it's hard to believe
that Koala Lumpur is the company's first attempt at a comedy title."

Future PlansExecutive Producer Jana Canellos said that restructuring the company,
so that its energies are directed toward design work, has resulted in a
smaller company, where everybody can work together. She also feels that
Colossal is a great working environment where people help each other, and
what they do best is tell short stories--whether it be via a commercial,
a station ID, a TV show or an interactive project.

Canellos expects the company will expand by creating work for new markets,
including the Internet. She stresses that regardless of what the format
is, the main thing Colossal is concerned about is a commitment to quality.

A look at Colossal's current projects gives some idea where the company
is headed. For instance, they are developing an online show with Microsoft,
material for kids' programs on the MSN (Microsoft Network), an interactive
TV project with a major entertainment company, and interstitials for a
major TV network. They are also doing live-action TV commercials for GTE
Mobilnet and animated IDs for the Discovery Channel.

Colossal also has its own award-winning Web site at http://www.colossal.com,
so check it out if you want to learn more about one of San Francisco's
great companies.

Colossal's Successful Children
When a company gets into trouble, the press rarely mentions what happens
to the people who join the ranks of the unemployed. Fortunately, the San
Francisco Bay area's film and animation industries have been growing rapidly
in recent years; so, when Colossal laid-off most of their production staff
in 1996, there were lots of jobs available. Some former staffers joined
well-established companies like ILM, Zoetrope and Pixar. Others joined
studios that were formed in the 1990s by Colossal alumni, while others
formed their own companies after the layoffs.

The live-action, animation and special effects companies in the Bay area
run by former Colossal employees include: Cartoonland, Complete Pandemonium,
Curious Pictures, EyeHeart, Kirk'sWorks, Little Fluffy Clouds, M5, Maverick,
MessyOptics, Protozoa, Six-Foot Two Productions, Story Animation Company,
and Wild Brain. They may not be well known yet, but all are producing excellent
work, suggesting working at Colossal was an important educational experience.

Wild Brain, founded in 1994, has grown rapidly. In 1996, when Colossal
laid off most of its staff, Wild Brain was busy doing commercials for Nike
and Coke, animation for HBO, Warner Bros. and the Cartoon Network, plus
CD-ROM projects, including Flying Saucers for AnyRiver Entertainment,
an animated Carmen Sandiego sequence for Brøderbund, and
the Green Eggs and Ham CD-ROM for Living Books. About half of their
staff of 80 are former Colossal people, including 10 taken on within two
weeks of their being laid-off last year.

Wild Brain's Humpty Dumpty Nike Spot.

Wild Brain is run by a consortium of directors
(John Hays, Phil Robinson, Gordon Clark, David Marshall and Robin Steele,
plus producer Jeff Fino) who use a combination of traditional and computer
animation, other new technologies, and overseas animation service. Their
work stresses storytelling and entertainment. At present Phil Robinson
is directing Ferngully II, a direct-to-video sequel to the Bill
Kroyer film. They are also developing an Internet situation comedy for
the Microsoft Network, a pilot for Nickelodeon, and several commercials
(Coke, Mainstay, etc.).

EyeHeart is Siri Margerine's new animation art production service,
doing ink and paint, backgrounds, illustrations, and whatever else your
art needs might be. For many years, Siri headed the art production services
department at Colossal. Clients include Colossal, Story Animation, Wild
Brain, Curious Pictures, Maverick, and other local studios.

MessyOpticsis an animation camera service founded
in 1996 by Carter Tomassi. The company uses Colossal's late model Oxberry
animation stand, with a 16mm and 35mm cameras, featuring all the bells
and whistles needed to do complex productions, including a motion control
system. Tomassi also has a 35mm high contrast film processor for doing
pencil tests and a 35mm Steenbeck flatbed. His clients include Colossal
Pictures, Curious Pictures, Lucas Arts, Pacific Data Images, Spellbound
Productions, Story Animation Co., and Wild Brain.
(find out more at http://www.messyoptics.com/)

Maverick is an animation studio formed in 1996 by Robert Valley
and Jeanne Reynolds. Valley, who animated for Colossal; he was in Korea
working on a Aeon Flux with Peter Chung when he got word that Colossal
had filed for Chapter 11. Maverick was formed when he returned to the States.
They have been kept busy doing work for Wild Brain and Curious Pictures.

Aeon Flux.

Little Fluffy Clouds
is a computer animation firm run by Betsy de Fries and Jerry van de Beek.
Since opening up in June 1996, they did the character animation for Colossal's
recent Pictogram Coca-Cola spot, created the destruction of the
universe in 60 seconds for Rocket Science, and animated a 30 second Mainstay
commercial for Wild Brain. The company is now working on another Coke commercial
for Colossal.

Media Concrete is a multimedia design company run by Stuart Cudlitz,
George Consagra and Anne Ashbey-Pierotti. They had formed Colossal's New
Media Division in 1990 and opened Media Concrete in March 1995. Working
with Colossal, they produced the Koala Lumpur CD-ROM for Brøderbund.
Other interactive projects they have worked on are Play-Doh Creations
for Hasbro Interactive and Ruff's Bone for Living Books. They
have also worked on projects for IBM, Hewlett-Packard and others using
new technology for communications.

Story Animation Company is run by Robert Story, who worked at Colossal
as a producer. He recently produced a commercial for GTE Mobilnet and is
presently producing the animated segments of a Sears commercial.

Protozoa, a motion capture company, was founded in 1994 by Brad
de Graf with seed money from Motorola. They are a spin-off of Colossal's
performance animation, which had developed the Moxie character in 1993
for the Cartoon Network. The company's focus is on character-based, real-time
3-D entertainment. Their projects also includes Squeezils, a cartoon
game for Inscape. Dev, the real-time animation character seen daily on
MSNBC's The Site is also theirs. They have also been developing
other unusual characters for a variety of media, including TV and the World
Wide Web. Clients include Microsoft, Silicon Graphics Images, and MSNBC.
Six-Foot Two Productions is Robin Atherly's company in Larkspur. Atherly
has provided computer ink and paint services for several CD-ROM producers.

Curious Pictures, a New York-based company founded in 1993, opened
a branch office in San Francisco on September 4, 1996. It is headed by
Colossal alumna Anne Smith, who worked her way up through the ranks from
production manager to senior managing producer of animation. Curious Pictures'
first projects here were a Nike commercial directed by Robert Valley and
three stop-motion ads for a superstore in the Midwest that were directed
by Denis Morellia. Both directors had also worked at Colossal.

Kevin Coffey's Cartoonland, founded in the 1980s, does several interesting
projects each year. They've produced the animation for the Star Wars
Chess Game for Software Tool Works and the animation for Doonesbury
Flashbacks: 25 Years of Serious Fun for Mindscape. Coffey has also
worked on several TV commercials for such national clients as Coca-Cola,
Nabisco, Van de Kamp, General Mills and others.

Colossal alum Kirk Henderson worked on the Orly's
Draw A Story CD-ROM for Brøderbund.

Kirk Henderson, who was one of Colossal's top
directors in the 1980s, works as an art director/designer/animator under
the name Kirk'sWorks. Last year, he completed Orly's Draw-A-Story
for Brøderbund. Prior to that, he helped develop the Toe Jam
and Earl CD-ROM.

The influence of (Colossal) Pictures on the local
animation and effects industry is immense. For the over 20 years since
the company was founded in 1976, Colossal has pushed animation forward
as an exciting art form and medium for communication. They helped develop
the skills of hundreds of production people and have helped make the Bay
area one of the most exciting production centers in the country.

Karl Cohen is President of ASIFA-San Francisco
whose first book, Forbidden Animation:
Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators, will be published later
this year. He also teaches animation history at San Francisco State University.